The mercury has dipped in this part of the country. It has dipped and stayed close to record lows. We have a few more days of the bone-chilling stuff ahead of us. In spite of our new HVAC system, and the flurry of window and door taping we did this weekend, the furnaces (all three) have been going non-stop for over 72 hours and the house is just above 60 degrees. Dale stopped by and did a couple of adjustments, including speeding up the blower on the basement unit but we are losing the battle. The storm window guy is coming on Thursday to quote the girls' room, and I'm just going to have him do the living room and dining room at the same time. When we put the plastic over the dining room windows, it BILLOWED. So much so that we couldn't even get it taped. We just slid the window seat cushions over it.
Walking past any window in the house, even the ones well taped and covered, the drafts are keenly palpable. The cold air is seeping THROUGH the front door. Not, not around the edges, but actually through the jointed panels. It's so cold, Tommie-Cat just snuggles deeper into the bed, the mice run rampant in the kitchen all night, their little frozen turds left like caraway seeds on the counters and stove, greeting me in the morning.
I'm starting a pool: Guess our gas bill for February!
Rules: Entrance fee is $5.00 The closest guess (over or under) wins one half of the pot, the other half going to pay a portion of the gas bill. In the case of a tie, proceeds will be split 1/4 each winner, half to the house. To help you out, December's bill was $354.41.
Rob and his crew have retreated to an indoor job. They were able to almost get the steel bracket attached to the garage wall where the concrete lid will be welded and bolted, but it's not quite finished, and we have to wait a couple of weeks for the roof to come anyways.
Dan and I will continue to prowl around the house with a roll of duct tape and tube of caulking targeting baseboard cracks and holes. Remember, this house has NO insulation, so the outside walls are icy on the inside, and wherever there is a penetration, a draft spills through.
The girls haven't bathed for four days - but hopefully, with the space heater going full blast all day in the bathroom (to keep the pipes from re-freezing) we'll get them in tonight.
Showing posts with label HVAC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HVAC. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
This cOld House 14
True to its name, the portion of the house heated by 'furnace 2' got down to a chilly 49 overnight as Dale was unable to get the part he needed to fix the brand new furnace in the basement which quit yesterday. He returned this morning and was able to correct the problem and we had gained about 10 degrees in the first hour after it began working. We are back to normal now, and cautiously watching the others for additional citrus signs. (Lemons?)
The concrete guys stopped by long enough yesterday morning to drop off blankets and tuck in the walls. With temps dipping into the twenties over night they needed to keep it hot enough to cook (cure.)
Glen is moving along on the tile. Tommy happily crawls into the floor every morning when Glen arrives and I don't see him until the house is quiet at 6:00 pm.
The electricians, (bless their hearts,) are hard at work completely re-wiring the kitchen. They've been here three days straight and have still some more work to do. It's taking much more time than I anticipated but as an added bonus, they managed to fix the call button box when they were fixing the doorbell. They work a bunch in Oakwood, and while they had seen call buttons before, they were quite excited to see that they were still operable and hooked up to the original mechanical box. They'd never seen that before.
Payne and Co., (the drainage people,) have their liliputian equipment stationed out by the living room and are making good progress on the excavation there. Their back-hoe is so cute! Rob's guy will be patching the holes in the foundation with some hydrostatic cement, then the whole thing will be water-proofed, gravel and drain tiles installed, all the drains and down spouts tied in and then back-filled to grade. Again a bonus, the arbor vitae I dislike had to be torn up to facilitate the excavation.
When Rob took out the windows in the girls' bathroom, he fitted the hole with a 1/4 piece of bead-board plywood. It was over 85 degrees in the bathroom this morning, testament to the amount of heat we are losing through the darn windows. Dan says we have a solution... just cover them all up with plywood!
I did meet with a storm window guy yesterday and that option looks better and better. More on that later.
The concrete guys stopped by long enough yesterday morning to drop off blankets and tuck in the walls. With temps dipping into the twenties over night they needed to keep it hot enough to cook (cure.)
Glen is moving along on the tile. Tommy happily crawls into the floor every morning when Glen arrives and I don't see him until the house is quiet at 6:00 pm.
The electricians, (bless their hearts,) are hard at work completely re-wiring the kitchen. They've been here three days straight and have still some more work to do. It's taking much more time than I anticipated but as an added bonus, they managed to fix the call button box when they were fixing the doorbell. They work a bunch in Oakwood, and while they had seen call buttons before, they were quite excited to see that they were still operable and hooked up to the original mechanical box. They'd never seen that before.
Payne and Co., (the drainage people,) have their liliputian equipment stationed out by the living room and are making good progress on the excavation there. Their back-hoe is so cute! Rob's guy will be patching the holes in the foundation with some hydrostatic cement, then the whole thing will be water-proofed, gravel and drain tiles installed, all the drains and down spouts tied in and then back-filled to grade. Again a bonus, the arbor vitae I dislike had to be torn up to facilitate the excavation.
When Rob took out the windows in the girls' bathroom, he fitted the hole with a 1/4 piece of bead-board plywood. It was over 85 degrees in the bathroom this morning, testament to the amount of heat we are losing through the darn windows. Dan says we have a solution... just cover them all up with plywood!
I did meet with a storm window guy yesterday and that option looks better and better. More on that later.
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
This cOld House 7
It's been a slow couple of weeks with Dale working in the attic on the new HVAC and nothing much else going on. I met with the plumber and electrician to go over what all our wants/needs are. I had a sitter a couple of afternoons so I could head on down to the tile showroom and pick out something small (and cheap) for the girls' bathroom.
The bid came in for the garage project and it was WAY higher than expected. I keep underestimating most jobs, I suppose because I haven't worked in the industry for a decade or so. I met with the GC and Architect to do some expense control, as well as with our real estate agent to get some guidance on what price he feels this house in this neighborhood can support. He has sold it twice, and knows the area well. I want to pick his brain on what feedback he got from other folks who viewed the house when it was on the market. I'm hoping that the boring stuff we are fixing, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, etc. is the kind of stuff that scared other buyers away, and that we can expect some recompense from these outlays. (Slim chance, but hope springs eternal.)
We did get some nice bids for the girls' bath and the rest of the plumbing. It's a go ahead. And with the temperatures dropping in to the 'teens in the past week, I'm VERY eager to start work on the garage, budget be damned.
I had to fire the electrician today. I was satisfied with neither the work nor the service and he pissed me off one too many times. Back to the drawing board there, with no really good alternative available.
We will be starting on the basement pipes tomorrow. The HVAC is all done except for the A/C which we won't be needing any time soon.
Today the tree guys are here razing my front yard. It will start the neighbors talking for sure! I'm trying to get some good picture in between doing laundry, blogging and keeping the kids fed. I tell 'ya, there's real beauty in watching pros do what they do best.
Last night the garage door jammed. We managed to get it closed, but there will be no more ingress/egress through that route until we are able to either fix it inexpensively ourselves, or replace it altogether with the new wall and double walk thru door.
The bid came in for the garage project and it was WAY higher than expected. I keep underestimating most jobs, I suppose because I haven't worked in the industry for a decade or so. I met with the GC and Architect to do some expense control, as well as with our real estate agent to get some guidance on what price he feels this house in this neighborhood can support. He has sold it twice, and knows the area well. I want to pick his brain on what feedback he got from other folks who viewed the house when it was on the market. I'm hoping that the boring stuff we are fixing, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, etc. is the kind of stuff that scared other buyers away, and that we can expect some recompense from these outlays. (Slim chance, but hope springs eternal.)
We did get some nice bids for the girls' bath and the rest of the plumbing. It's a go ahead. And with the temperatures dropping in to the 'teens in the past week, I'm VERY eager to start work on the garage, budget be damned.
I had to fire the electrician today. I was satisfied with neither the work nor the service and he pissed me off one too many times. Back to the drawing board there, with no really good alternative available.
We will be starting on the basement pipes tomorrow. The HVAC is all done except for the A/C which we won't be needing any time soon.
Today the tree guys are here razing my front yard. It will start the neighbors talking for sure! I'm trying to get some good picture in between doing laundry, blogging and keeping the kids fed. I tell 'ya, there's real beauty in watching pros do what they do best.
Last night the garage door jammed. We managed to get it closed, but there will be no more ingress/egress through that route until we are able to either fix it inexpensively ourselves, or replace it altogether with the new wall and double walk thru door.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
This cOld House 6
The last couple of days have been very very busy around here. Dale started on the attic HVAC unit, cutting through ceilings for duct work and hauling the hardware upstairs to the attic. Hey did you know there's not a scrap of insulation between the attic and the the living space below??? There's a quick fix for some efficiency. I'm waiting on Rob's insulation guy (Rob - my general contractor,) to get me some numbers. Dale was missing today, working on fashioning ducts in the shop which worked out terrifically as the power (and water) was off in the house for most of the day.
Rick,(the carpenter who fixed the living room floor,) Larry and Bob Sr. have been tag-teaming on the beam in the garage. Rick and Larry built three support walls to hold up the cantilevered room over top and then mid-way through the second day Rick and then Bob worked to remove the beam that was all ate up. There were three 2 x 8 planks and a 2 x 4 involved, with one 2 x 8 remaining pretty solid. They replaced the remaining two and the 2 x 4 with three more 2 x 8 planks and hung the joists on hangers. The sub-floor was pretty ate up as well, but we can't really get to it as it is under the wall from above. Bob was confident that it wouldn't be an issue.
Tim the plumber was able to get all the water pipes out of the way, shutting down the downstairs bath until the project is done. He had to move some valves and add a couple to get it isolated and shut off, and then cut and capped the pipes. The electric remained in the way.
Right when Rick was getting down to the nitty-gritty pulling out the beam the electricians showed up. These were replacement electricians as the original guy was too busy to get to the panel to meet Bob's schedule. So Tom and crew swarmed in at noon and cut the power, ripping out the old 200 AMP panel, moving the meter and installing a new 200 AMP panel over by where the new A/C condensers will sit outside the old garage. Then they added a new 100 AMP sub-panel where the old panel was, and hooked up the rest of the house back to it. All of this took care of the main line which had to be moved out of the way of the beam replacement project, as well as various and sundry fire hazards discovered when we ripped down the drywall ceiling in the old garage. Tom is coming by tomorrow to see what all else needs to be done. (Making the plugs kid-safe, fixing the code issues in the kitchen, running new clean power to the A/V and computers, adding a phone jack so we can answer the phone in the living room.) Dan also said something about running some CAT6 (ethernet) around as well.
Rob and Co. (That's the two Rick's, Bob Sr. and Larry, so far,) will have no more to do once the beam is done until I get a firm bid on the new garage and the bathroom remodel. As it is we're about 2 good man-weeks into T & M (time and material) stuff and that makes me nervous. The living room floor had a price tag on it but they found more damage than anticipated, and I have only my own estimation on what the beam will cost us.
Tim the plumber had some good news for us in that we now have a pretty good plan on how to clean up the miles of pipes in the house. The girls bathroom is now a must do, for several reasons, but once it is done, we will have over half the house re-plumbed, (correctly and legally,) including all the supply in the basement. It will be great to get rid of all the old galvanized piping down there as it's corroding as I sit here, waiting to spring a leak. (Not to mention the 17 rusting valves in the laundry room alone.) He managed to replace the main shut off valves, install a pressure regulator and baffle, several angle stops and bring the kitchen gas valve up to code. Unfortunately when he reduced the water pressure from 115 PSI to the recommended 85 PSI, we lost all pressure to the upstairs fixtures. (The cold lines are almost completely corroded shut, which is why doing the girls' bath has moved up the priority list.)
I met with a landscape architect to work up a proposal for the front of the house when we tear it up to put in the garage. He seems to be right on track with what I outlined and I'm sure if he watches his spending, he'll do a bang-up plan for us. I meet with a different landscape architect tomorrow to do it all over again.
My other landscape guy dropped by today, (the one who did the clean-up on the yard) and I grabbed him to talk about the stretch of mud along the back of the house. He's working up numbers for me for putting flagstones down. Dan wants to get a second opinion on the catalpa tree, so I'll be calling around tomorrow to get someone out. It is not an immediate need - we can probably wait a year or two before we have to yank it down.
Today the gutters were cleaned for the last time this season. All the trees are now bare so we no longer have to fear a gutter back-up, (provided we don't have a problem with an ice dam.)
All in all we've had a pretty good week with no real surprises. (Although when Tim grabbed an old recirculating line to indicate it needed to be removed, it broke free of its moorings and fell on his head. He had to temporarily tack it back up.) As it turns out, once the termite-beam was removed, the joists were found to be solid, so we didn't have to replace any of them. I haven't had the heart to tell Rick we still have a soft spot in the living room floor behind a duct that he probably didn't see. (He is nursing broken ribs from a car accident last week and I can't imagine shimmying around my crawlspace would be very good for the ailment.) And Other Rick, (the one who worked on all the doors earlier in the week,) appears to have glued my back door shut, which will have to be freed. That back door really needs to be replaced, but we are holding off on frivolous stuff like that. It works just fine for now, (if you put your shoulder into it.)
I'm actually starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Of course, this tunnel is a detour I was forced into on my way to building a garage. Still, it's good we are taking care of these things in such a manner that they shouldn't bother us for another 30 years or so. I'm really quite thrilled that the plumbing has presented itself to be a short term project that won't be nearly as difficult as I had feared. And Dan, who is the voice of reason (budget,) also agrees.
Rick,(the carpenter who fixed the living room floor,) Larry and Bob Sr. have been tag-teaming on the beam in the garage. Rick and Larry built three support walls to hold up the cantilevered room over top and then mid-way through the second day Rick and then Bob worked to remove the beam that was all ate up. There were three 2 x 8 planks and a 2 x 4 involved, with one 2 x 8 remaining pretty solid. They replaced the remaining two and the 2 x 4 with three more 2 x 8 planks and hung the joists on hangers. The sub-floor was pretty ate up as well, but we can't really get to it as it is under the wall from above. Bob was confident that it wouldn't be an issue.
Tim the plumber was able to get all the water pipes out of the way, shutting down the downstairs bath until the project is done. He had to move some valves and add a couple to get it isolated and shut off, and then cut and capped the pipes. The electric remained in the way.
Right when Rick was getting down to the nitty-gritty pulling out the beam the electricians showed up. These were replacement electricians as the original guy was too busy to get to the panel to meet Bob's schedule. So Tom and crew swarmed in at noon and cut the power, ripping out the old 200 AMP panel, moving the meter and installing a new 200 AMP panel over by where the new A/C condensers will sit outside the old garage. Then they added a new 100 AMP sub-panel where the old panel was, and hooked up the rest of the house back to it. All of this took care of the main line which had to be moved out of the way of the beam replacement project, as well as various and sundry fire hazards discovered when we ripped down the drywall ceiling in the old garage. Tom is coming by tomorrow to see what all else needs to be done. (Making the plugs kid-safe, fixing the code issues in the kitchen, running new clean power to the A/V and computers, adding a phone jack so we can answer the phone in the living room.) Dan also said something about running some CAT6 (ethernet) around as well.
Rob and Co. (That's the two Rick's, Bob Sr. and Larry, so far,) will have no more to do once the beam is done until I get a firm bid on the new garage and the bathroom remodel. As it is we're about 2 good man-weeks into T & M (time and material) stuff and that makes me nervous. The living room floor had a price tag on it but they found more damage than anticipated, and I have only my own estimation on what the beam will cost us.
Tim the plumber had some good news for us in that we now have a pretty good plan on how to clean up the miles of pipes in the house. The girls bathroom is now a must do, for several reasons, but once it is done, we will have over half the house re-plumbed, (correctly and legally,) including all the supply in the basement. It will be great to get rid of all the old galvanized piping down there as it's corroding as I sit here, waiting to spring a leak. (Not to mention the 17 rusting valves in the laundry room alone.) He managed to replace the main shut off valves, install a pressure regulator and baffle, several angle stops and bring the kitchen gas valve up to code. Unfortunately when he reduced the water pressure from 115 PSI to the recommended 85 PSI, we lost all pressure to the upstairs fixtures. (The cold lines are almost completely corroded shut, which is why doing the girls' bath has moved up the priority list.)
I met with a landscape architect to work up a proposal for the front of the house when we tear it up to put in the garage. He seems to be right on track with what I outlined and I'm sure if he watches his spending, he'll do a bang-up plan for us. I meet with a different landscape architect tomorrow to do it all over again.
My other landscape guy dropped by today, (the one who did the clean-up on the yard) and I grabbed him to talk about the stretch of mud along the back of the house. He's working up numbers for me for putting flagstones down. Dan wants to get a second opinion on the catalpa tree, so I'll be calling around tomorrow to get someone out. It is not an immediate need - we can probably wait a year or two before we have to yank it down.
Today the gutters were cleaned for the last time this season. All the trees are now bare so we no longer have to fear a gutter back-up, (provided we don't have a problem with an ice dam.)
All in all we've had a pretty good week with no real surprises. (Although when Tim grabbed an old recirculating line to indicate it needed to be removed, it broke free of its moorings and fell on his head. He had to temporarily tack it back up.) As it turns out, once the termite-beam was removed, the joists were found to be solid, so we didn't have to replace any of them. I haven't had the heart to tell Rick we still have a soft spot in the living room floor behind a duct that he probably didn't see. (He is nursing broken ribs from a car accident last week and I can't imagine shimmying around my crawlspace would be very good for the ailment.) And Other Rick, (the one who worked on all the doors earlier in the week,) appears to have glued my back door shut, which will have to be freed. That back door really needs to be replaced, but we are holding off on frivolous stuff like that. It works just fine for now, (if you put your shoulder into it.)
I'm actually starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Of course, this tunnel is a detour I was forced into on my way to building a garage. Still, it's good we are taking care of these things in such a manner that they shouldn't bother us for another 30 years or so. I'm really quite thrilled that the plumbing has presented itself to be a short term project that won't be nearly as difficult as I had feared. And Dan, who is the voice of reason (budget,) also agrees.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
This cOld House 5
We are really starting to move along now that my general contractor has freed up on his last job. He cut loose his uncle (a finish carpenter) to work on our place, and as we speak he is making the doors open and close with a fluidity not seen in decades in this place.
Dale the HVAC guy replaced two furnaces last week, and is heading up to the attic tomorrow to start work on installing our bad boy up there. We took out a 60% efficient 113K BTU unit and a 92% efficient 115K BTU unit and replaced them with two 96% efficient units, a 60K and a 40K. It has evened out the hot and cold rooms, and although we haven't installed the new upstairs unit, the house is essentially comfortable. Our gas bill should go down substantially. I am eager to get the attic unit up and running as once that is done, we can start storing stuff up there with no fear of having to haul stuff out of the way again.
Dale also ripped down the ducting in the garage that we need out of the way to replace our termite-shredded beam. When he got it down, even more damage was visible (if at all possible) and it looks like we'll be replacing some joists as well. (Yippee.) They guys will be building walls to hold up the main floor so they can replace the beam sometime this week with a nice solid laminated one.
I've met with a couple of window guys. The first guy confirmed our fears, while the second one allayed them. I have yet to see numbers out of the second guy but he says he can RESTORE the existing windows, (leaded sash, steel casement, new glazing, etc. plus custom storm windows that fit the existing notched frames that hold the summer screens,) for less than retrofitting new Pellas or Andersons. If so, it's a no brainer - it would fit our budget and our aesthetic sense.
I also met with a tree guy. The gigantic, enormous, humongous, ancient, stately catalpa tree that dwarfs the house has a bit of a root rot problem and may have to come out. He's also given me an estimate for removing the two trees that we will lose when we build the garage. We have a guy who has a portable sawmill that can handle the smaller trees, so we may have the oak stock that Dan needs to re-work the living room floor currently growing in the front yard. Wouldn't that be cool?
Met with a painter this afternoon to get an evaluation of the problems. He reassured me they were minor and normal and probably mostly due to cheap paint and poor prep/application, as Dan and I had suspected. He said most of the stuff I showed him his guys could handle and so it's just a matter of me talking Dan into letting someone else to the painting and us working on other items.
Most of the outside wood is still in pretty bad shape, thanks to years of neglect and a band-aid approach to the decay. Our carpenter says he can get Dan started on what needs to be done and then Dan can work on it at his leisure next summer. It will be time consuming and tedious and will ultimately fix the problem in a much more permanent way instead of just addressing the symptoms of decay. I sense that buying scaffolding is in our future.
My family's visit was great. There was enough space and beds and bathrooms for all. The universal observation, however, was that it isn't a quiet house. The floors creak and groan in the night with midnight trips to the potty and with no carpeting to speak of, it echoes something fierce. It did not disturb me, so perhaps I've adjusted to the volume. Or perhaps I was just too tired to wake up.
Dale the HVAC guy replaced two furnaces last week, and is heading up to the attic tomorrow to start work on installing our bad boy up there. We took out a 60% efficient 113K BTU unit and a 92% efficient 115K BTU unit and replaced them with two 96% efficient units, a 60K and a 40K. It has evened out the hot and cold rooms, and although we haven't installed the new upstairs unit, the house is essentially comfortable. Our gas bill should go down substantially. I am eager to get the attic unit up and running as once that is done, we can start storing stuff up there with no fear of having to haul stuff out of the way again.
Dale also ripped down the ducting in the garage that we need out of the way to replace our termite-shredded beam. When he got it down, even more damage was visible (if at all possible) and it looks like we'll be replacing some joists as well. (Yippee.) They guys will be building walls to hold up the main floor so they can replace the beam sometime this week with a nice solid laminated one.
I've met with a couple of window guys. The first guy confirmed our fears, while the second one allayed them. I have yet to see numbers out of the second guy but he says he can RESTORE the existing windows, (leaded sash, steel casement, new glazing, etc. plus custom storm windows that fit the existing notched frames that hold the summer screens,) for less than retrofitting new Pellas or Andersons. If so, it's a no brainer - it would fit our budget and our aesthetic sense.
I also met with a tree guy. The gigantic, enormous, humongous, ancient, stately catalpa tree that dwarfs the house has a bit of a root rot problem and may have to come out. He's also given me an estimate for removing the two trees that we will lose when we build the garage. We have a guy who has a portable sawmill that can handle the smaller trees, so we may have the oak stock that Dan needs to re-work the living room floor currently growing in the front yard. Wouldn't that be cool?
Met with a painter this afternoon to get an evaluation of the problems. He reassured me they were minor and normal and probably mostly due to cheap paint and poor prep/application, as Dan and I had suspected. He said most of the stuff I showed him his guys could handle and so it's just a matter of me talking Dan into letting someone else to the painting and us working on other items.
Most of the outside wood is still in pretty bad shape, thanks to years of neglect and a band-aid approach to the decay. Our carpenter says he can get Dan started on what needs to be done and then Dan can work on it at his leisure next summer. It will be time consuming and tedious and will ultimately fix the problem in a much more permanent way instead of just addressing the symptoms of decay. I sense that buying scaffolding is in our future.
My family's visit was great. There was enough space and beds and bathrooms for all. The universal observation, however, was that it isn't a quiet house. The floors creak and groan in the night with midnight trips to the potty and with no carpeting to speak of, it echoes something fierce. It did not disturb me, so perhaps I've adjusted to the volume. Or perhaps I was just too tired to wake up.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
This cOld House 4
Dan and I were awakened by a presence this morning shortly before 5:00 am. "That's a squirrel in the gutter," he said confidently. "Or the fireplace" I replied, hoping I were wrong. We both got up to use the bathroom and then I crawled back into bed with Naomi and he got up to read the news.
(Miriam was, THANK GOD, sleeping over at Aunt Sue's.)
I was laying awake, deciding if I should get up to do something, and my decision was made for me when something climbed up my armpit. I called for Dan, scooped up Naomi and retreated to my bedroom. Dan met me at the head of the stairs and I told him to go do his husbandly duties.
Instead he followed us to the master bedroom and I had to shoo him out. Donning protective gear, (jeans and gloves,) he ventured back into the girls' bedroom and started turning on lights. He found the culprit leaving his mark on the girls' toy shelf, and when the culprit saw Dan he scrambled back whence he came, through the fireplace and up the chimney. Dan said it was a baby squirrel, no longer than 6 or 7 inches nose to tail. The good news is that the hole sucking the heat out of the house is much smaller than we anticipated.
While in his heightened state of awareness, Dan approached the dresser in front of the fireplace and encountered the gargantuan rubber cockroach Mim received from the visiting entomologist at her school. Needless to say, he came unglued. The keenness of his fight or flight response kept his heebie-jeebies active for quite some time.
I joined him shortly after he moved the dresser and fetched a mirror and flashlight to assess the situation. (And a couple of Clorox wipes, to clean up the aforesaid mark left behind on the girls' toy shelf.)
On the list for Lowes: chicken wire.
An update on the roof. As some of you know, we had a couple of roof inspections when we were deciding to buy the place and (foolishly?) bought it anyway. The roof is original, slate, and 85 years old. It has been patched in a less-than-elegant manner throughout its life. We were quoted for a complete tear down and new slate put on, $500,000 to $800,000. Yes, that's the right amount of zeros, and no, there's no decimal missing. I was TOTALLY bummed out about this for weeks, and shortly after moving in I called a larger, regional company whose specialty is slate for a second opinion. The second estimate came in on Friday at a fraction of the cost of the first. The only explanation I can think of is the first guy just didn't want to do the work and was unable to speak the truth.
That kind of game-playing is so far off my radar screen that I am at a loss as to how to deal with it.
I spoke with a leaded glass guy on Friday and he's coming on Monday to assess the window situation. We have several leaky windows that need to be rebuilt. I'm hoping I can learn how to do it myself. Rather than lead, the muntins are zinc, which is inherently more difficult to work than lead. Additionally, the steel casement frames have deteriorated, and I'm not sure what can be done about those. We are just starting to explore our options at this point. It will be difficult to find a hybrid solution that meets our competing aesthetic and economical goals.
The coal bin tear down went very well, as did the repair in the living room crawl space. We've got the book cases in place and loaded up. The built-in case will need some major work down the line but it's not a priority. We'll be putting only light objets d'art on it for a while.
Dale the HVAC guy shows up Monday to start working on changing out the furnace in the garage. Nothing else (except for Turkey,) is scheduled for this week.
(Miriam was, THANK GOD, sleeping over at Aunt Sue's.)
I was laying awake, deciding if I should get up to do something, and my decision was made for me when something climbed up my armpit. I called for Dan, scooped up Naomi and retreated to my bedroom. Dan met me at the head of the stairs and I told him to go do his husbandly duties.
Instead he followed us to the master bedroom and I had to shoo him out. Donning protective gear, (jeans and gloves,) he ventured back into the girls' bedroom and started turning on lights. He found the culprit leaving his mark on the girls' toy shelf, and when the culprit saw Dan he scrambled back whence he came, through the fireplace and up the chimney. Dan said it was a baby squirrel, no longer than 6 or 7 inches nose to tail. The good news is that the hole sucking the heat out of the house is much smaller than we anticipated.
While in his heightened state of awareness, Dan approached the dresser in front of the fireplace and encountered the gargantuan rubber cockroach Mim received from the visiting entomologist at her school. Needless to say, he came unglued. The keenness of his fight or flight response kept his heebie-jeebies active for quite some time.
I joined him shortly after he moved the dresser and fetched a mirror and flashlight to assess the situation. (And a couple of Clorox wipes, to clean up the aforesaid mark left behind on the girls' toy shelf.)
On the list for Lowes: chicken wire.
An update on the roof. As some of you know, we had a couple of roof inspections when we were deciding to buy the place and (foolishly?) bought it anyway. The roof is original, slate, and 85 years old. It has been patched in a less-than-elegant manner throughout its life. We were quoted for a complete tear down and new slate put on, $500,000 to $800,000. Yes, that's the right amount of zeros, and no, there's no decimal missing. I was TOTALLY bummed out about this for weeks, and shortly after moving in I called a larger, regional company whose specialty is slate for a second opinion. The second estimate came in on Friday at a fraction of the cost of the first. The only explanation I can think of is the first guy just didn't want to do the work and was unable to speak the truth.
That kind of game-playing is so far off my radar screen that I am at a loss as to how to deal with it.
I spoke with a leaded glass guy on Friday and he's coming on Monday to assess the window situation. We have several leaky windows that need to be rebuilt. I'm hoping I can learn how to do it myself. Rather than lead, the muntins are zinc, which is inherently more difficult to work than lead. Additionally, the steel casement frames have deteriorated, and I'm not sure what can be done about those. We are just starting to explore our options at this point. It will be difficult to find a hybrid solution that meets our competing aesthetic and economical goals.
The coal bin tear down went very well, as did the repair in the living room crawl space. We've got the book cases in place and loaded up. The built-in case will need some major work down the line but it's not a priority. We'll be putting only light objets d'art on it for a while.
Dale the HVAC guy shows up Monday to start working on changing out the furnace in the garage. Nothing else (except for Turkey,) is scheduled for this week.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
This cOld House 1
We are finally starting to settle in. I have more maintenance/upgrade projects going than unpacking these days. I've met with an army of contractors et al in the past month and have settled on a very capable general contractor to get us started on the most pressing items. I am awaiting 3rd bids on electrical, plumbing and the all important (expensive!) HVAC. We have abandoned to idea of geothermal as being less than optimal in our retro-fitted application. We will be splitting the HVAC 3 ways, (instead of the current two,) to gain some efficiency. We will lose some attic storage space but I think it will be substantially more efficient to do so, plus we will eventually be gaining some basement space when the new garage is built.
My GC originally suggested holding off on the garage project until March as he was certain we couldn't get it poured before December. He's recently learned that his concrete guy is looking for some work to close out his year, and can do our job in November (provided we sail through the city approval process.) I've got the architect going full steam ahead on construction drawings, and am hoping the council review next Thursday does not produce any substantial or structural changes. The improvement we propose enhances the property (from our perspective anyway!) so we do not anticipate any grumbling from the city.
I tackled one of the copper counter tops this weekend with a homemade recipe I found online. The uneven patina, paint splashes, and dirt are coming off ok but it is not shiny. It will take elbow grease to get the shine back. I also looked up recipes to put a quick and more even patina back on the copper. We are not sure if we want to do that or just let it age naturally. More experimentation required.
We had a gutter emergency last week. Johngineer, (the seller) had warned us more than once or twice to keep the gutters clean or we were in for a world of hurt with the roof. On Sunday I noticed they were all-of-a-sudden FULL and CLOGGED with leaves. We had been monitoring the situation pretty well, but the big oak in the front yard had moulted in a couple of days. With Dan on guard duty this weekend, we just didn't have a chance of getting it done. I had to call somebody and they were able to show up last Friday to clean them. We'll no doubt have one more big cleaning this season, but we'll probably be able to do it ourselves.
I'm glad we are moving forward (somewhat) on getting some things done. I'd rather be picking colors... deciding between a two-stage and a variable speed blower furnace is not nearly as fun. But the house is really very comfortable (if one ignores the gas bill,) and we are thankful we don't have any really major 'all-tore-up' projects on the horizon.
We hope to have the living room floor fixed in the next week or so to finally finish unpacking the last boxes (books) and put away items strewn around waiting for a place to rest. I'll write another update when something happens.
- Robyn -
My GC originally suggested holding off on the garage project until March as he was certain we couldn't get it poured before December. He's recently learned that his concrete guy is looking for some work to close out his year, and can do our job in November (provided we sail through the city approval process.) I've got the architect going full steam ahead on construction drawings, and am hoping the council review next Thursday does not produce any substantial or structural changes. The improvement we propose enhances the property (from our perspective anyway!) so we do not anticipate any grumbling from the city.
I tackled one of the copper counter tops this weekend with a homemade recipe I found online. The uneven patina, paint splashes, and dirt are coming off ok but it is not shiny. It will take elbow grease to get the shine back. I also looked up recipes to put a quick and more even patina back on the copper. We are not sure if we want to do that or just let it age naturally. More experimentation required.
We had a gutter emergency last week. Johngineer, (the seller) had warned us more than once or twice to keep the gutters clean or we were in for a world of hurt with the roof. On Sunday I noticed they were all-of-a-sudden FULL and CLOGGED with leaves. We had been monitoring the situation pretty well, but the big oak in the front yard had moulted in a couple of days. With Dan on guard duty this weekend, we just didn't have a chance of getting it done. I had to call somebody and they were able to show up last Friday to clean them. We'll no doubt have one more big cleaning this season, but we'll probably be able to do it ourselves.
I'm glad we are moving forward (somewhat) on getting some things done. I'd rather be picking colors... deciding between a two-stage and a variable speed blower furnace is not nearly as fun. But the house is really very comfortable (if one ignores the gas bill,) and we are thankful we don't have any really major 'all-tore-up' projects on the horizon.
We hope to have the living room floor fixed in the next week or so to finally finish unpacking the last boxes (books) and put away items strewn around waiting for a place to rest. I'll write another update when something happens.
- Robyn -
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